Texas oyster fields reopen

Updated 8:29 pm, Thursday, February 23, 2012

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Texas oyster lovers: get ready for your shuck fix.

The largest red tide outbreak in the state's history is slowly receding, finally opening many Texas oyster bays that were closed for months. Oyster producers now are hoping for some tasty returns to make up for their losses.

“We're back in business,” said Buddy Treybig, owner of a seafood company in Matagorda who had to keep his seven oyster boats off the water from Nov. 1 until late January.

Oyster fishermen essentially were left unemployed until freshwater concentrations and water temperatures in bays reached levels that weakened the algae and reduced its count.

“We'll get something,” Treybig said. “We may not make half of what we normally make. One-third would be better than nothing.”

Red tide is the name given to a kind of toxic algae that stains waters with a reddish color. It shut down oystering in practically every bay system in Texas beginning Nov. 1 and kept them closed longer than any other red tide bloom the state has encountered, officials said.

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Red tide has appeared periodically along the Texas coast for years. The algae responsible for the condition produce a toxin that can kill fish but not oysters or shellfish.

But it does accumulate in the tissue of oysters and can produce symptoms of neurotoxic shellfish poisoning — nausea, dizziness and tingling in the hands and feet — when people eat the infected shellfish.

Also, toxins can be released into the air when the outbreak is highly concentrated, causing itchy eyes and throats, wheezing and other concerns, particularly for people with respiratory problems.

The outbreak this year has been broad and intense in some areas, but hospitality officials said it had little impact on tourism.

Bob Pinkerton Jr., mayor of South Padre Island, said it was more of an inconvenience that disappeared entirely by mid-December.

Last season was a strong one for Texas, Robinson said, because production shifted to the state when oyster harvests in Louisiana and Mississippi fell off. Texas sold about $18.6 million worth of oysters in 2010-2011, Robinson calculated.

Officials are hoping for a recovery now that algae counts both in the water and in the tissue of oysters have fallen to levels the Texas Department of State Health Services deem safe. Those readings have convinced the state to lift the oyster ban in a few bays entirely, and in areas of several other bays.

Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the department, could not predict that all the bays would be reopened entirely before the public oyster season ends on April 30. But recent weeks have been encouraging.

“We're hopeful we're going to keep going in the right direction,” he said.

Rick Groomer, president of Groomer's Seafood in San Antonio, said he, too, is pleased to see the Texas bays opening up because demand for oysters has spiked in recent months, and many of his customers want Texas oysters.